A triple celebration (2 anniversaries and Capitol One $ returned .. with interest!) with 2 prize winners .. could be one of the best HAC gatherings yet!

A cure to the plague, perhaps?

Good idea! Probably very therapeutic. Looks like it could kill anything.

Yes! It is a beautiful call, quite unlike any of the other blackbirds. Melodious.

Yeah .. wouldn't want to drink that much.

But do you think it would be OK to inject?

Did it sing for you?

One of my favorite memories of South Dakota was seeing a fair number of these birds and listening to their call.

Thanks. I didn’t think I was going to be able to record the descent because it was raining when I started down but it soon stopped.

ANOTHER reason to hate view-blockers.

Actually, I've ridden a fair amount of the CDA Trail and found the view-blockers to be pretty tolerable because you can almost always look up and see a mountain somewhere--unlike most of the bike trails in Minnesota.

Damn view-blockers!

Oh, fragrant water lilies. No wonder I couldn’t place them. I don’t have a sense of smell.

You probably mentioned these in the journal and it just went over my head. I don’t remember hearing the term before.

Don’t they though? It’s so hard to get the perspective that shows it for what it is. That’s Rachael’s function in this shot.

It certainly feels like it. We’re going to ease our way back into the world pretty slowly and carefully though, because we’re really still in the middle of a nightmare.

It doesn't sound as foreboding to say "the dark side of Saddle Ridge Road" as it would if the road was named "Ichabod Crane Bridge" or "Dead Horse Gulch". Or Haunted Death Pass". They should rename it.

Well, I wouldn't go that far.